Such home automation systems are used for motorized products or automatic devices for closing or solar protection in the building, or for the control of lamps or other systems. Typically, one or more command transmitters are provided; each device to be controlled—rolling shutter, blind, lighting unit, etc.—is associated with a command receiver; it is also possible for provision to be made for several devices to be controlled by a same command receiver. The command transmitters and command receivers communicate by radio and use the same transmission frequency, or predetermined frequencies. For these devices, and in particular for motorized products or automatic devices for closing or solar protection in buildings, logistic reasons most often necessitate that the pairing is not performed during manufacture, but rather on the worksite, after installation of the products. Various pairing solutions are proposed in the state of the art.
Certain solutions relate the case where command transmitters are capable only of transmitting and where command receivers are capable only of receiving. U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,118 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,289 are examples of such solutions.
Other solutions use command transmitters and command emitters capable of transmitting and receiving; U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,980, or U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,159 are cited in particular.
WO-A-01 71685 discloses a universal remote controller, suited to controlling various units. Each unit contains a record of the various data necessary to allow the controller to manage it remotely, with a device code in particular; the record is copied into the universal controller. This document proposes that the controller interrogates the various units that it controls successively.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,085 describes a communication system in which the different objects are not paired. On the contrary, the objects are identical from the communication point of view and do not have an unique address.
EP-A-0 651 119 describes a set of transmitters and receivers, and mentions the pairing problem. Pairing is effected by learning a code for one transmitter from another transmitter. The two transmitters are placed side by side and the button for the channel in question is pressed on each transmitter, starting with the “teaching” transmitter. This gradual method of learning the codes is also applied to the receiver. The document envisages inhibiting the code teaching function on some transmitters.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,866 describes a communication system in which each device includes a communication identification, which is allocated in the factory or by the user. For a group constitution, a central device sends a message inviting devices to join the group. On receipt of an invitation message, a device responds as, appropriate with an acceptance message. The central device stores a list of the devices forming the group, i.e. the devices that have responded with an acceptance message. Said procedure for forming a group allows messages intended for the group to be sent.
The French patent application filed by the applicant on 13 Jul. 2001 under the number 01 09369 describes a method for pairing transmitter and receiver. This application specifies that an installer can be supplied with a programming console. Each of the receivers is thus also a transmitter, and the programming console is therefore not only a transmitter but also a receiver. In the pairing phase, receivers send an identification number which is unique to each of them to the console. The software contained in the console allows the receivers that are known to it to be classified. The installer therefore has the option to send commands successively, each of which will be recognised only by the single receiver in question, and then to pair said receiver, which is thus identified physically by responding to said command, with the transmitter intended to control it thereafter. In this solution, it is proposed that a specific console be used; this is not itself paired with the receiver, but which is used first to identify the receiver and then to pair the latter with the transmitter.
There is therefore a requirement for a method for pairing objects which are capable of sending as well as receiving which is both simple and reliable. Such a method must maintain its reliability even in a radio environment or heavily loaded network—for example in the presence of neighbouring products which have been configured previously, or neighbouring products undergoing configuration.